CSU Chico Interview Questions
& Process

It was a pretty relaxed interview. You need to prepare a short presentation or practice session, but keep it simple and brief, around 5-10 minutes. Make sure to engage with the people interviewing you. Providing them with a handout to follow along is a good idea. Just aim to make it enjoyable.

Before the interview, my supervisor was really helpful, sending me the questions they thought they'd ask because they know how tough it can be for students. The panel interview itself was pretty chill; they did a round-robin thing with the questions and were really encouraging and easy to talk to.

We had a video interview on Zoom that lasted about 20 minutes. There were 5 interviewers who took turns asking questions. They asked me about 10 questions, mostly about my past work experience and how it relates to the job description. They also wanted to know about my soft and hard skills, and what kinds of activities and events I would organize for the students if I got the job. Other questions were about the university and the role itself, how I could contribute to the company, and how I deal with conflicts.

I had an initial online interview via Zoom which went well. The next day, I was asked to schedule a campus visit. This visit was quite unpleasant. It started with a breakfast meeting where people were late. Then, I had an interview with current and adjunct faculty. An adjunct faculty member revealed she was also interviewing for the same role, which was awkward. My research focuses on disabilities as I am a woman on the spectrum. They arranged for me to meet with staff from the accessibility resource center. During this meeting, a staff member critiqued the language in one of my studies, calling it a microaggression and suggesting I educate myself on ASD, despite my own identity and career focus on disability research. Following that, a real estate agent showed me houses. The agent ran over the allotted time and drove too far, making me 30 minutes late for my next interview. I didn't have a car and couldn't control the timing, but the search committee chair expressed her disappointment. My job talk was spent with them criticizing my research topic and methods. After the final interview, I left for the airport and was called on the way to be told they hired someone else, suggesting they had already made a decision before my visit.